Korach

Rabbi Eliyahu Hoffmann

This week's sidrah (Torah reading) deals with the machlokes (dispute)
between Korach, his followers and Moshe. Bnei Yisrael were warned
by Moshe to stay away from Korach and his congregation.

"And Moshe spoke to the congregation saying,
'Turn away now from the tents of these wicked
men and do not touch anything that belongs to
them lest you be destroyed for all their sins.'"

The Ramban raises the question as to why in certain places the Torah
is very explicit in instructing the non-punished to stay away from
those who are being punished. (Indeed, when the city of Sedom was
destroyed, and Lot's wife erred in looking back to witness the
destruction of her city, she was instantly turned to a pillar of salt.) It
seems, then, that this prohibition of witnessing the punishment of the
evil is very serious, and those who disobey it can suffer dismal
consequences.

The Midrash Tanchuma (Shemini 11) helps to understand this concept:

There once was a Talmudic student who was a pious man,
yet whose father was an alcoholic. Many times, he would
fall down in the street in drunkenness, whereupon the
children would come and pelt him with sticks and stones
and chant after him "look at the drunk!" His pious son was
so ashamed of his father's situation that one day he
approached him with a compromise. "Father," he said, "if
you promise me that from now on you will not go to the
taverns to get drunk, thereby discrediting our family and
bringing disgrace upon yourself, then I will undertake to
supply you with the best wines, so that you may drink at
home to your heart's desire." His father agreed to this
arrangement, and so, every night, the pious son would
arrive at his father's house with an ample supply of wine
and food, and would leave the house only after tucking his
intoxicated father into bed.

One rainy day, the pious son was walking to shul when he
came upon a drunkard lying in the street. The rain beat
down upon him, and the children were hitting him with
sticks and stones and throwing earth upon his face and into
his mouth. He said to himself, "Let me go now and bring
my father here, that he may see once and for all the
disgrace and humiliation of the drunkard. Maybe then he
will learn his lesson." And so he did, he led his father to the
spot. "Observe," he said, "how the drunken man looks. Isn't
it disgraceful!"

Undeterred, the father turned to the drunkard. "Tell me,
my friend, which tavern do you frequent to have attained
such a blissful state of drunkenness?"

From this story, says Rav Eliyahu Dessler, it is obvious that witnessing
the punishment of the wicked has the potential either to elevate a
person, or to attract him to the very sin which has brought the
punishment upon the sinner. Which effect it will have depends on the
character of the observer. The father was still attracted to alcohol, so
when he saw the drunkard lying in the street, it merely served to
remind him of the pleasures of drinking. His pious son had no
attraction to drinking, so for him witnessing the disgrace of the
drunkard served to reinforce his scorn for drink.

Seeing punishment can arouse in a person the memory of the pleasure
derived from doing that sin. Thus, unless a person is totally removed
from desire towards that particular sin, it is very dangerous for him to
witness the punishment of a sinner or to dwell upon the details of his
transgression.

This was so, explains Rav Miller of Gateshead, in the case of Lot. He
had been wicked together with the people of Sedom; observing their
retribution had the power to arouse within him the memory of the
sin, and the punishment would then descend upon him too, as
happened with his wife. Similarly, Bnei Yisrael were forbidden to have
any contact with the posessions of Korach's assembly when he was
punished. They too were tainted with his sin, for he had incited them
to rebel against Moshe. Thus the thoughts of sin still dormant within
them could easily have been aroused, and they too would suffer his
punishment.

It is a popular trend nowadays to publicize all of the contemptible sins
of the most wicked people in graphic detail. People justify their
interest in these gory facts, saying that they want to "see just how low
a person can get", and to proclaim the repulsiveness of their sins. A
person can be found following the details of the most sickening case,
dreading to miss even the smallest fact. Afterward he will remark, "See
what happens to a person if he doesn't have the Torah!" - as if that
statement justifies the hours he has spent hungrily devouring every last
detail. In truth, Baruch Hashem, Torah Jews are infinitely distant from
the corruption of such sinners, yet we ourselves are not totally free
from the taint of sin. To counteract this, we have to separate ourselves
more and more from any connection which could possibly arouse in
us impure thoughts. Through separation, we achieve kedushah (holiness), and
come closer to Hashem.